Hershey Bears‘ third year center Peter LeBlanc(18) had an assist hat trick to help his team with the 5-4 overtime win giving them a 2-0 series lead in the best of five AHL Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.
This effort followed up a pair of helpers he had in game 1 and the points currently tie him for the league lead.
He was originally a Chicago Blackhawks‘ 7th round pick in the 2006 draft (#186 overall) but only signed an NHL contract, a one-year entry level deal, at the start of his third pro season and is set to become a restricted free agent at the end of this campaign.
He spent all of his time with their minor league affiliate Rockford IceHogs putting up a little more than a point in every other appearance for 40 goals and 56 assists in 164 games. He was signed consecutive AHL deals and even started his rookie season in the ECHL with Toledo Walleye for 22 games until permanently recalled.
The 5’11” forward may be not be the biggest guy on the ice but has power forward weight at 200 lbs.
With his breakout early playoff performance (his first time in the postseason), chances are good Washington Capitals will re-up with him for another year and who knows he may even get a look for a few games in the show.
LeBlanc has been overlooked for a few years, just get it over with, give him a shot in the bigs, this guy will come up big, he always does, every year he finishes on top and comes up big